4100 miles later...
Aaaaand I made it! One hell of a drive, but I love traveling so it's all good. Left San Diego on the 30th and made it out here to Fairfax, VA, on the east coast on the 9th (thank God they let me move in early).
First, some photographs:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27713140@N07/sets/72157606694848604/
Follow the link to see snapshots of the adventure (don't worry, I spared you most of the scenery I shot).
So here's how it went down:
DAYS 1-3
Left San Diego on Wed, July 30th (and of course forgot to make a final stop at the comic store on the way out of town, big mistake) and headed up to L.A. Stopped to see my buds Lia, Jessica and Steven, and even managed to make one last delivery for Look Effects to Universal Studios (so next time you watch an episode of "Life", you've got me to thank!).
(BTW, thanks for the loan of your camera Jess, I'll mail it back to you as soon as you get around to sending me your addy
)
Next morning it was off to Flagstaff. Stopped at the Grand Canyon to catch an awesome sunset before heading off to a cheap motel. And after some sleep I dropped by my no.1 vegan Madelyn before continuing on to Colorado Springs. I did make a short stop at Four Corners Monument (sorry for the snapshot, lol) where weirdly enough I saw John Locke from "Lost" -- guess he got tired of the tropics. And no, I didn't grab a photo
-- the man was probably on vacation.
DAYS 4-6
After staying in a terribly overpriced roach motel for the night, I made a stop at the Air Force Academy. This was an interesting experience as I hadn't been there in 16 years, since I actually attended as a cadet. Smells, sounds, seeing my old dorm, watching the 4th years (freshmen) march to lunch, even the low oxygen level... Strange experiencing it again after so long.
Done with the reminiscing, I made a quick stop at the Garden of the Gods and then headed off. After a looong day on the road I made it to York, Nebraska, where I own some corn fields. Spent the night at what had to be the cleanest and most comfortable cheap-motel I've ever stayed at, then spent the majority of the day checking out my property, soy bean crops, corn (sorry folks, couldn't find a place that sold corncob pipes as souveniers), and other exciting things you find on a farm. Continued on from York to Lincoln to visit my grandmother's resting site and then made like a lightning bolt south -- I was determined for some reason not to stop in Kansas for any reason whatsoever and somehow pulled it off. Found the first motel in Oklahoma I could stop at and crashed for the night.
Next day it was onward to Dallas! Made it halfway through the day and spent the rest of the night with my no.1 bud James watching episodes of The Office on DVD
.
DAYS 7-10
I stayed in DFW for a couple days, hung out with my top friend Angee most of the time. Caught the 3rd Mummy movie (I miss the previous actress in the franchise
!) and of course saw The Dark Knight again
. Watched some crappy direct-to-DVD flix (I figured Starship Troopers 3 would suck but not THAT much! ... ok, maybe I did, hahaha...), relaxed and let my car take a break, because the next day I was off again!
Took a straight drive north-east, not a lot of sightseeing this half of the trip. Stopped in Knoxville for a night's sleep, and the next day kept pressing forward and made it halfway through Virginia before calling it a night.
DAY 11!
Headed out of the motel, drove a couple of hours through the mountains, and TA-DA! MADE IT! And now here I am in my new and fairly empty apartment -- got something to sleep on, something to put my computer on, something for my houseplants to stand on (since I wasn't going to leave Charlie or Sticker on the ground at the mercy of squirrels; FYI, plants are not the most talkative travel companions), and thus ended my great roadtrip!
So now I'm here, started my new job yesterday and everything. Let's hope the drive out here was worth it -- I'm giving this Customer Support gig a few months trial. We'll see if Virginia sells me by the end of the year, if not I can just pack everything up and head back to sunny San Diego. Wish me luck!